Greta Thunberg’s influence goes a long way: next year’s re:publica, Europe’s largest conference on the internet and digital society, will be putting the most pressing questions of our time at the top of its agenda. Both in the programme of events, and with its choice of event location, the topic of sustainability will be more sharply in focus than ever before.
The global school strike, initiated by one sixteen-year-old schoolgirl from Stockholm, is currently rocking world politics and thus acting as a catalyst for a long overdue debate on global climate policy. It brings up a painful subject and it’s about defining goals, making decisions, and radically changing course. Together, we want to assume civil society responsibility, accelerate design processes and discuss who actually determines how soon “soon” is and what actually is really possible,” the re:publica team stated.
The topic of sustainability was already given quite a lot of space at last year’s event. German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze visited the conference to present the “Digital Agenda” of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, combined with a plea to transform digitalisation from “an accelerator for the ecological and social crises of our planet” into “a motor for sustainability” (although we’re still waiting for those words to be followed by deeds…). And on the third and last day of the digital conference, one whole stage, sponsored by the DBU (the German Federal Environmental Foundation) focused on sustainability and digitalisation.
On that day, we were joined by three very interesting people for our RESET panel session “On Behalf of the Forest”. You can find a review and the live recording here: How Can Digitalisation Help Nature Have a Say?
The re:publica is not only about ecological issues of course, but also about the social context: How can we create sustainable digital infrastructure that enables social participation in the first place? At the 14th re:publica, everyone is welcome to take part – anyone who wants to spread a sense of optimism, who is frustrated at the slow pace of current developments, who has an innovative solution and who wants to invite dialogue and discussion. The floor will be open for the internet community and actors from the field of sustainability to work together to find out what a digital-sustainable transformation of our society really means.
Submit your ideas now!
Want to present an idea or a project at the re:publica? Then apply now to organise a session – the Call for Participation (CfP) for re:publica Berlin 2020 is open!
Give a talk about digital humanism at the re:publica 2020 and debate internet policies. Speak about smart cities and technology utopias. Explore the relationship between digitisation and the intersectional points of sustainability and culture. Take a look into outer space and into the future. Open minds to topics that nobody is yet aware of. The re:publica conference 2020 is looking for contributors.
The deadline for submissions is the 15th of December 2019.
RESET at re:publica 2020
And RESET will be involved in next year’s conference too, of course: Uta Mühleis and Sarah-Indra Jungblut will be curating the conference’s “Technology” track. A RESET re:publica event is also in the pipeline…